Im sure people are going to have LOADS of fun putting these in their systems with the way alot of these motherboards are designed now. That stupid backplate is going to be colliding with plenty of bottom RAM slot lock tabs.
Its completely worthless, so are the are vents on it, it will actually do even more harm since its blocking alot of potential airflow from the front intakes and/or CPU/NB fans hitting the back of the PCB. And since the vents are right where the GPU is, you can forget about it possibly transfering heat to the metal plate. Totally stupid design, I think its the same crap thats on the 9800GX2.
For $700 a pop these jerks should have put a block of silver on it instead of copper/aluminum, that alone would shrink the size of the heatsink by about 15-25%.